KFC Palace

In Spain, fried chicken is not part of the culture, and this, for KFC, is not good news. People think of burgers, pizza or Asian food but never fried chicken. So, in a category as competitive as QSR and on a much smaller budget than its competitors, one of KFC's main goals in Spain is to become a part of the culture by connecting, especially, with the younger audience. However, connecting with this type of audience is not easy. Young people reject traditional advertising and are totally skeptical of brands that try to enter their cultural arena. This is a big challenge for KFC and all brands in the QSR category because younger consumers are more likely to come to this type of food. How can we reach an audience so important that they don't want to be reached? Our goal was to go beyond simply reaching the audience, we needed to build relevance in their way. We needed to connect and entertain them on their own turf. If we wanted to connect with our audience, we knew that Twitter is one of the places where most of their conversations are generated. So after listening, listening and listening we found something wonderful. We discovered that young people, organically, were using the expression "I invite you to KFC. But they weren't referring to fried chicken, they were giving other meanings to the acronym for inviting themselves to KFC: Know each other, Fuck each other and Cum together or Know my door, Fuck me in my bed Ciao. Yeah, you know, when you're young, hormones rule. So, instead of running away, (usually when sex and food are combined) we decided to meet your needs by creating the KFC Palace Suite. A room at one of Spain's most iconic luxury hotels, and we gave those who invited themselves to KFC the opportunity to experience a night of intimacy. Whatever KFC means to them. In short, we didn't just respond to a conversation, we gave the young people what they were looking for by creating a real-life experience to make a deeper connection between the brand and the audience. An important factor in reaching young people and introducing them to the culture is getting them to think, "KFC is a brand for people like me. It's cool." To do this, our voice must be familiar and connect with the audience in topics and conversations that are interesting and relevant to them. And the ultimate place for our audience to generate conversation is Twitter. But we had to understand that in Social Media, and especially Twitter, it's an environment where people connect with each other, and as a brand, if you want to get in, you have to ask permission. We were clear that to connect, instead of talking, the first thing we had to do was to listen and know how to listen, spend time, and wait for the right moment. So we waited, waited, waited... When we discovered that people were using the acronym KFC to invite each other on intimate dates we saw an opportunity to connect organically with the audience on their turf. So we decided to respond, but well, in the right way, knowing how difficult it is to achieve the premise of "the simplicity of responding quickly. But we didn't just respond to the conversation, we took the conversation to real life by turning a simple tweet into a unique brand experience. The first thing we did was to co-create the KFC Suite next to the Palace Hotel in Madrid. A suite with all the details in the style of KFC. We decorated the suite with red and white tones, buckets and we hung pictures of the colonel. In addition, we designed all kinds of KFC amenities exclusively for the occasion: bathrobes, cushions, sheets, soap, candles, slippers and, of course, KFC condoms. And to make the experience complete, we also designed a menu with a selection of exclusive offers for two that could be ordered, free of charge, through our own room service. Once the KFC Palace Suite was ready. We took action. We were aware that we were going to enter into a conversation that was organically created by people. So we decided to enter into it little by little. We started responding to those tweets that had the most impact by appreciating their ideas and telling them that we'd heard them and that they should be watching to generate curiosity and anticipation. For the launch day we launched a video and several pieces in social networks showing the room we had created explaining the dynamics of participation to get a night in the Suite. People began to participate and the idea began to expand in the networks and media, getting some of the most influential among our target as @TheGrefg (3.1 MM followers), @PostureEspanol (233 K followers) @Cabronazi (6.5 MM followers) began to invite to KFC those they wanted. So we weren't just a brand responding to a conversation, but gave the opportunity to co-create a cultural moment that the audience could join and, hopefully, enjoy to the fullest by spending two nights in the KFCPalace suite. KFC Palace achieved the best ever reach for KFC on social media (5.3 million), the average Twitter interaction rate increased +326%, the average volume of mentions of the brand on Twitter alone was +211% and the hashtag #teinvitoakfc was TT. All this achieved a PR value of 480,000 euros. We got several people to enjoy KFC in the Palace de Madrid suite. Something they would never have thought they could do.